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To Samari:
Just to let you know, Tony Stark hasn't been a weak drunk nerd in years. He took his superhero job seriously, which included shaping up. His body is the weakest link, which is why Tony in the comics and movie tries his best to keep his physical fitness and combat ability progressing. It only makes sense; suit or not, he now fights on a regular basis. If you fight, you would want to train. Knowing martial arts moves also helps when he is in the armour.

To Samari:
Just to let you know, Tony Stark hasn't been a weak drunk nerd in years. He took his superhero job seriously, which included shaping up. His body is the weakest link, which is why Tony in the comics and movie tries his best to keep his physical fitness and combat ability progressing. It only makes sense; suit or not, he now fights on a regular basis. If you fight, you would want to train. Knowing martial arts moves also helps when he is in the armour.

We aren't told this in the film though. Or the previous films. That's my point. The only hint we get is that he has a martial arts stand. That doesn't mean anything. Expecting the audience to already know what Tony is combat proficient and can infiltrate a facility while taking out armed guards using martial arts and dodging folks left and right Jackie Chan style is just lazy to me and serves as just a means to get from point A to B. He makes it seem like anyone could walk in and be a badass. All you need is a martial arts prop in your studio! I'm going to watch the film again in the near future to see if my opinion has changed, but right now that is one of the major problems with this film for me.

__________________

"Every light must fade, every heart return to darkness!"
永遠不要失去信心，你的命運。

So I assume you will demand that Stark be a weakling for all future films? Even though you just saw what he could do in IM3? I look forward to you complaining about the same thing all over again in Avengers 2.

Do realise that they aren't going to dedicate any time in the film for training montages. This isn't Rocky. They give hints that he learned some martial arts, and that's it. But they aren't going to focus on it because it is a waste of screen time. This is not a TV series, they would dedicate what part of the film be spent on what.

Tony is now a reasonably competent fighter. You can accept that or not, but that won't change the official events.

So I assume you will demand that Stark be a weakling for all future films? Even though you just saw what he could do in IM3? I look forward to you complaining about the same thing all over again in Avengers 2.

Do realise that they aren't going to dedicate any time in the film for training montages. This isn't Rocky. They give hints that he learned some martial arts, and that's it. But they aren't going to focus on it because it is a waste of screen time. This is not a TV series, they would dedicate what part of the film be spent on what.

Tony is now a reasonably competent fighter. You can accept that or not, but that won't change the official events.

No, I just ask that a film be consistent with a character based on the internal logic that film franchise has established, instead of pulling something out of their ass and saying a character has a trait that is all too convenient in order to progress through the story. It works against what has already been established for the character. I don't think asking for that kind of consistency within the story is asking too much as a viewer.

Stark doesn't have to know martial arts in order not to be a weakling. He's a genius and has built powerful suits of armor. How does that make him weak? Did you really think he was weak before he was doing his Jackie Chan stunts?

And saying that it isn't necessary to dedicate any screen time to something important to the story is just an excuse for lazy writing. Please. By that logic you can make up whatever element within any story and not have to have any exposition at all because it isn't convenient to your time constraints. A montage wasn't even necessary, but they could do better than a glimpse of a wooden fighting stand. That could mean anything. They could have had some throwaway lines. That would have been better than what was offered, which was speculative at best. And reasonably competent fighter is different from being a Harlem Globetrotter martial artist. Dude was dodging bullets and bouncing off walls practically.

The only thing I've accepted is that it's a major plot hole. Because that was what was provided. Unfortunately you'll just have to deal with that reality.

__________________

"Every light must fade, every heart return to darkness!"
永遠不要失去信心，你的命運。

Sorry but I have to agree with Vallen Chaos Valiant about Tony's ass kicking ability in Iron Man 3 is not inconsistent.

We know from Iron Man 2 that he has already been training in combat focused mix martial arts, on top of that during Avengers he meets lots of physically superior superhumans/demi-gods who more than once makes fun of him about how he is nothing without his armour (heck even normal people like Hawkeye and Black Widow would remind Tony how he's not much help without his armour). I really don't think Tony in that one year after New York is just going to go "well I've got my armours and I'm going to make more of them!" and just going to shrug off that glaring physical weakness of his which is pointed out so many times - especially one of the point of Iron Man 3 is that he was preparing for war/invasion the entire time, it would be logical to think he'd been training his ass off just in the case where he would come across a situation where he would be without his suit, and just like that line he said in the movie - real man have backup plans (or something like that), and just relying on his suits is not a backup plan.

Sorry but I have to agree with Vallen Chaos Valiant about Tony's ass kicking ability in Iron Man 3 is not inconsistent.

We know from Iron Man 2 that he has already been training in combat focused mix martial arts, on top of that during Avengers he meets lots of physically superior superhumans/demi-gods who more than once makes fun of him about how he is nothing without his armour (heck even normal people like Hawkeye and Black Widow would remind Tony how he's not much help without his armour). I really don't think Tony in that one year after New York is just going to go "well I've got my armours and I'm going to make more of them!" and just going to shrug off that glaring physical weakness of his which is pointed out so many times - especially one of the point of Iron Man 3 is that he was preparing for war/invasion the entire time, it would be logical to think he'd been training his ass off just in the case where he would come across a situation where he would be without his suit, and just like that line he said in the movie - real man have backup plans (or something like that), and just relying on his suits is not a backup plan.

I didn't mention that Tony isn't a reasonably good fighter. He is seen in a boxing ring in Iron Man 2 and then has a martial arts fighting stand in Iron Man 3. That is it. Just because the other members of the Avengers noted he wasn't much without his armor doesn't mean we should assume Tony is suddenly Solid Snake. What they were saying was the truth. There is a difference between training in a gym and actually having experience doing tactical espionage. Essentially anyone could train in a gym for 6 months to a year and be able to do what Tony does in Iron Man 3 in terms of just kicking everyone's ass that comes across your way. I think they went a little overboard. It is what it is. Tony can now rival Jackie Chan. It doesn't make sense, but it is what it is. Iron Man 3 has bigger problems anyways. I'll let it be.

__________________

"Every light must fade, every heart return to darkness!"
永遠不要失去信心，你的命運。

I didn't mention that Tony isn't a reasonably good fighter. He is seen in a boxing ring in Iron Man 2 and then has a martial arts fighting stand in Iron Man 3. That is it. Just because the other members of the Avengers noted he wasn't much without his armor doesn't mean we should assume Tony is suddenly Solid Snake. What they were saying was the truth. There is a difference between training in a gym and actually having experience doing tactical espionage. Essentially anyone could train in a gym for 6 months to a year and be able to do what Tony does in Iron Man 3 in terms of just kicking everyone's ass that comes across your way. I think they went a little overboard. It is what it is. Tony can now rival Jackie Chan. It doesn't make sense, but it is what it is. Iron Man 3 has bigger problems anyways. I'll let it be.

I don't see how he was rivalling Jackie Chan. He used home made weapons to disable a few security guards, and all of his home made weapons are of some kind of electric stun-gun variations so all he needed was just one clean shot (doesn't even need to be vital spots) plus he mixed it into his martial arts training. Also speaking of Solid Snake which is ironic and completely demolishes your point - in the Metal Gear series Solid Snake trains with Virtual Reality equipment and simulations for his espionage skills and tactics, so it's not like Tony can't do the same in his own home either with Javis' help. And also when he is Iron Man he doesn't always goes in through the front door or use brute force so it's not like he's not a tactician in nature either. As for home gym - I really doubt Tony's "gym" is going to be any normal gym and refer to VR training point before. He's not the type of guy to go half-ass because of his huge ego, and when he is determined to do something he'll do it no matter what, so it's also safe to say he won't gimp out on some secret service agent type training either.

Again, when the series had hammered on the point on "Tony Stark is useless without his armour" for a few times already and the movie about him preparing for all out invasion from god knows who, it's really logical that Tony is going to train to be at least be as capable as a good secret service agent type.

Okay, so the Mandarin isn't an actual character, just an act for the AIM people. Yet, the Ten Rings organization does exist in the movieverse. Does this mean that AIM is also related to those guys, or is it just coincidence that two groups use similar iconography that had the same basis in the comic books? Or did AIM simply adopt the symbol because they wanted more credibility for their terrorist group?

Okay, so the Mandarin isn't an actual character, just an act for the AIM people. Yet, the Ten Rings organization does exist in the movieverse. Does this mean that AIM is also related to those guys, or is it just coincidence that two groups use similar iconography that had the same basis in the comic books? Or did AIM simply adopt the symbol because they wanted more credibility for their terrorist group?

Spoiler for Ten Rings:

Accordion to the canon comic released before the Avengers film, the Ten Rings is not a traditional terrorist group. Instead, it is simply a free source of money and weapons for ANY terrorist group who wanted aid. Terrorism Charity, in other words. AIM is essentially the Ten Rings, while the actual Terrorists don't know who is sponsoring them.

The canon comic is very specific on this; the terror cells of the Ten Rings are entirely unrelated to one another. And that many of the groups are actually mortal enemies with each other. The only thing in common is that AIM is gifting them all with resources.

Accordion to the canon comic released before the Avengers film, the Ten Rings is not a traditional terrorist group. Instead, it is simply a free source of money and weapons for ANY terrorist group who wanted aid. Terrorism Charity, in other words. AIM is essentially the Ten Rings, while the actual Terrorists don't know who is sponsoring them.

The canon comic is very specific on this; the terror cells of the Ten Rings are entirely unrelated to one another. And that many of the groups are actually mortal enemies with each other. The only thing in common is that AIM is gifting them all with resources.

Privatized terrorism along the lines of what Gaddafi did supporting various terrorist and insurgent groups around the globe.

In my country alone the bastard help fund the from the Muslim separatist (back then) MILF to the Maoist CPP-NPA and likely the kidnap for ransom group Abu Sayaf.

I came in expecting to see iron man kick ass, and I wasn't disappointed. Fast pace, good lines, great action. If that's what you're looking for you're in for a treat, otherwise, well it still isn't a bad movie.

Spoiler for Pepper:

It was totally worth it for the 1 minute where pepper gets super powers

Accordion to the canon comic released before the Avengers film, the Ten Rings is not a traditional terrorist group. Instead, it is simply a free source of money and weapons for ANY terrorist group who wanted aid. Terrorism Charity, in other words. AIM is essentially the Ten Rings, while the actual Terrorists don't know who is sponsoring them.

The canon comic is very specific on this; the terror cells of the Ten Rings are entirely unrelated to one another. And that many of the groups are actually mortal enemies with each other. The only thing in common is that AIM is gifting them all with resources.

Ahh, so

Spoiler for Iron Man 3 plot thing:

since AIM are behind the Ten Rings, Killian really meant it when he said that he was the Mandarin.

since AIM are behind the Ten Rings, Killian really meant it when he said that he was the Mandarin.

Yep, he was being literal.

Spoiler for mandarin:

The final proof was when he organised how the POTUS was to be burned to death by oil because that's Mandarin's style. He designed the Mandarin's actions; the British drug addict is just an actor paid to say his lines.

I'm been reading both positive and negative feedback about this film. I wonder how it really holds up to the best of comic book films.

It does not hold a candle to the top dogs like the Dark Knight or The Avengers to me. There are way too many plot holes in the movie and the logic that they've already established in the previous Marvel films doesn't even make sense in this one. Plus the tone just way too much on the light side. It reminded me of Charles' Angels in a sense where the focus of the film shifts to making an audience laugh instead of telling an innovative story. It's like Disney completely took over and decided to just dog this one.

Spoiler:

- Tony's armor crumbling like Doritos chips every time it gets in a battle. It took on alien invaders in the last film and could take on lighting blasts from a Norse God, but when it is heated to 3000 degrees Celsius it either is disabled and/or disintegrates.

- So Rhodes was in that suit for how many hours before he was transported back to Miami after a simple heated handshake disabled Iron Patriot? Good thing he wasn't fatigued from being inside all that time and was ready for a first fight once he jumped out.

- Tony is now a master martial artist, or at least good enough to infiltrate a guarded facility, take out several guards, get captured, escape, and avoid every bullet with multiple people shooting at him. Only in an action comedy does this work. Which is what we have here.

- Tony still has time to crack jokes after Pepper Potts falls to her death.

- Tony took out the shrapnel from his chest. Well that was easy. And why didn't he do that sooner? What, did the technology not exist six months before during the time in New York? Or during Iron Man 2? Didn't look like a complex procedure.

- Why is Rhodes allowed to live?

- How does clothing regenerate on the Extremis henchmen when it's burned to a crisp?

- Why can Pepper Potts throw a beatdown and destroy Killian with no form of martial arts training what-so-ever?

- Why does Maya Hansan change her allegiance after hearing two sentences from Stark?

__________________

"Every light must fade, every heart return to darkness!"
永遠不要失去信心，你的命運。